"Email is for old people"

USA Today published an interesting piece on cell phone texting today. There are about 192 million "active mobile phones" in the United States, of which 90 pecent have screens and can handle text. The paper also references an earlier Pew study that reports that 63 percent of the 18 - 27 age bracket text message. I don't have a copy of the study, but I wonder if that figure combines texting via IM and cell phones.

The paper does a good job of breaking down some the innovative ways people and institutions are organizing around short text messages to work, flirt and make money.

While looking for the Pew study mentioned above, I found a brand new study on the habits of the teenage 'Net users. Published yesterday, the work provides some interesting information about the variety of ways kids in the 12 - 17 age group use communications technology.

Some key quotes:

On landline phone use:
51% of online teens usually choose the landline telephone when they want to talk with friends.

On 'Net use:
The vast majority of teens in the United States, 87% of those aged 12 to 17, now use the internet.

On personal media devices:
An overwhelming majority of all teenagers, 84%, report owning at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). 44% say they have two or more devices, while 12% have three and 2% report having all four of those types of devices. Only 16% of all teens report that they do not have any of these devices at all.

On email use v. IM:
For many years, email has been the most popular application on the internet—a popular and “sticky” communications feature that keeps users coming back day after day. But email may be at the beginning of a slow decline as online teens begin to express a preference for instant messaging (emphasis supplied)....

Teens who participated in focus groups for this study said that they view email as something you use to talk to “old people,” institutions, or to send complex instructions to large groups. When it comes to casual written conversation, particularly when talking with friends, online instant messaging is the clearly the mode of choice for today’s online teens.

Pew summarizes "Teens and Technology" with these findings:

• Close to nine in ten teens are wired.
• Teens are technology rich and enveloped by a wired world.
• 45% of teens have cell phones and 33% are texting.
• Email is still a fixture in teens’ lives, but IM is preferred.
• Teens share more than words over IM.
• Half of families with teens have broadband.
• Face-to-face time still beats phone and screen time.
• Most teens use shared computers at home and growing numbers log on from libraries, school,
• and other locations.
• The size of the wired teen population surges at the seventh grade mark.
• Older girls are power communicators and information seekers.

Comments

[Treo 600 Addict]

Very interesting. I like to think I'm multimedia, meaning I use the most appropriate technology given the availability, circumstances, etc. Even though I am over 40, I use IM extensively. I use it on my phone and on my computers.

I'm getting close to needing reading glasses. The point? Phone IM is very convenient and effective, but hardware manufacturers have to create new and better input methods. The Treo is great for IM. We need enhanced designs, including larger keypad surfaces on smaller phones as the users age.